Acts 17:16-34
This week our text open as Paul arrives at Athens with out his missionary team. He had left Silas and Timothy in Berea. Upon arriving in Athens he sends a message back asking Silas and Timothy to join him in Athens, however they will not meet up with him till he reaches Corinth.
Being alone did not change Paul’s mission or tactics in any way. He still heads to the synagogue, and shares the Gospel with the Jews and Gentile worshipers (Acts 17:17). This might not seem like much of a big deal, but we need to remember how he got here. He was first a successful preacher in Thessalonica and then was forced to flee that city. After that he had a great success in Berea, until he was again forced to flee. Before those two cities he was illegally beaten by the guards and imprisoned in Philippi.
Now he finds him self in Athens, and alone. It would have been easy for him to sit back and throw a little pity party until Timothy and Silas arrived to cheer him up. Paul’s heart broke over the thought of the pagan city, and that carried him through this and kept him preaching. (Acts 17:16)
Athens was past its prime by Paul’s lifetime, but it was still a major center of learning, philosophy, and religion. They had idols to every known god, and it has been said it was easier to meet a god in Athens then a man. This was a university town, filled with scholars and philosophers. These philosophers would wander around the market place looking for people talk with. Some of them would offer free lectures, and others just were looking for debates. (Acts 17:21)
Paul would have had a forum to speak, but this was not fertile ground. Primarily they were concerned with intellectual, what we would think of theoretical or hypothetical conversations, and not practical real world changing information.
Luke mentions two groups of philosophers that took interest in Paul. The first he mentions are the Epicureans. They believed that pleasure was the chief end of man, and that there was no afterlife. They also believed that if any gods did exist they did not pay attention to the world of men. Truth, according to their thinking, was found through experiences and not reason.
The second group was known as the Stoics. They believed that the entire universe was god, and that when they died their soul returned to god from which it came. The taught that self-mastery was the greatest virtue. They also believe that reason was the way to find truth.
It was in this academic world that Paul came was preaching Jesus and the Resurrection. Since this was a new thing to both of these groups they desired to hear more of what Paul had to say, so they invited him to speak before their court. This would be a tough crowd for Paul because there was no common ground to work from.
To get over this barrier of being a stranger he pays them a complement about how religious they are, so religious that they even worship an unknown god. He also mentions touring their great city, which they would have been proud of. This allows him to transition into a message about the one true God.
Through out his message he does not once fall back on the Scriptures for support, or evidence since these men would not be familiar with them, nor would they likely respect the authority of Scripture. Instead he brings in some of their poets, which helps to anchor the conversation in land his audience could understand.
The message starts by saying God created everything. This is a very important fact, so important that it’s the first thing recorded in the Bible, and it is constantly referred to through out the entire Bible. It is also the major point which the enemy is attacking Christianity today.
Paul continues to describe all the attributes of God. He is “Lord of the Heavens and the Earth,” this is important because it shows he has authority. Paul tells us that God does not need men, buildings, or even worship. He categorizes God as a giver, and that man was made in God’s image. These traits make God more personal then some statue in a garden and since God is personal, and Lord, he will come and sit in judgment over the world. Paul is building a biblical picture of who God is, without ever mentioning the scriptures.
All of these points are direct attacks on all of the religions of the day in Athens’s but nothing yet appears to raise alarm with them. It is not until Paul gets to the topic of the resurrection that he runs in to problems with his audience. It was this idea of a physical resurrection that they could not accept. The Epicureans did not believe any part of a person lived on past death, and the Stoics believed death was the complete and final end of the physical person. It is possible that this event was in Paul’s mind when he penned 1 Cor. 1:18-31 and spoke of how Christianity seems foolish to those who are wise in the eyes of the world.
Through Paul’s work in this city only two are mentioned that are converted. It seems that for the most part he was ineffective here compared to his prior success in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. We do not read any more about these two in scripture, and there is no mention of Paul ever returning to Athens. From all worldly measures this stop over in Athens appears to be a failure.
The big question for us to answer is what can we learn from this experience? The thing that most sticks out to me is that Paul adapted his message to his audience without ever compromising biblical truth. We must follow his model in our own lives.
Our messages, lessons, programs and churches must fit our audience. If they do not, we will not get many to participate in the way we want them to, and if they do not do that they will not hear God’s message for them. As an example, if you are creating an event for teenage boys, you should consider using informal team sports of some kind. This could be anything from dodge ball, to basketball or volleyball. If you are hoping to reach young woman, you probably should consider a spa like atmosphere. When teaching to specific culture, age, or gender groups build your examples out of their world, and not yours.
The danger in this is that it is simple to spend so much time adapting the message delivery style, and the wrappings around the message that one forgets the message that they were there to deliver. Like Paul in his address to the Athenians we must never comprise the truth of scripture to get a win. Paul could have left out the resurrection, and possibly gotten a better reaction. If Paul said, “God just wants you to be happy” he might have had a better inroad with the Epicureans. If instead of saying God created everything, had Paul said that God was in everything and everything was God, he might have gotten inroads with the Stoics.
Paul did none of these things, instead he used as much of their culture, and their environment as he could to communicate the real truth about God. In our zeal to be relevant to the culture, we cannot ever comprise on even the smallest detail of truth. If we do it throws doubt on everything else, and weakens our witness.
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